This invention relates to a novel clock apparatus, and more particularly, to an improved handless clock device providing continuous visual display of time of day indications from the positioning and re-positioning of ever-changing numbers of ball-like spheres displayed at rest upon pivotable holder members and viewed in frame through aligned timeindicating apertures in the clock housing.
The present invention is intended to provide clock means for use in indicating time of day (T.O.D.) in hours and minutes and simultaneously to delight and enrapture the observer by the viewing of time-related movements of the ball-like spheres into framed view and then out of framed view with respect to the time-indicating apertures in the clock housing. The ball-like spheres are said to be loaded into view within the time-indicating apertures in response to the attained time of day and unloaded therefrom at predetermined intervals in order to re-arrange the appearance order of the ball-like spheres in response to continued attained time of day. The clock device comprises in one preferred embodiment a relatively continuous horizontally aligned sequence of ball-holder chutes positioning the spheres in parallel sequential alignment with a corresponding number of the time-indicating apertures in the clock housing. In another preferred embodiment, the clock device is comprised of selected groups of the horizontally aligned ball-holder chutes arranged in a predetermined vertical assembly wherein each selected group of horizontally aligned chutes again positions the spheres in parallel sequential alignment with a corresponding number of the time-indicating clock housing apertures also arranged in selected groups in vertical assembly.
The clock device includes a plurality of interiorly mounted ball-driver cams mounted to a rotatable drive shaft, which shaft is driven through being coupled to an interconnectable shaft of an electric clock motor. The driver cams are aligned to engage the ball-like spheres, respectively, an individual one of the spheres being placed in each ball-holder chute. The time-related movements of the cams drive or load the spheres, upon engagement therewith, from the chutes into full framed view within the time-indicating housing apertures. The displayed spheres then rest upon pivotable holder members sometimes hereinafter referred to as drop bars. An individual drop bar is weight biased to follow and immediately respond to the predetermined movement of a drop cam also mounted to the drive shaft, and is responsive to the time-related rotational movement of the drop cam to cyclically pivot rearwardly away from the housing apertures in order to drop or unload the displayed spheres back into their respective aligned holder chutes.
The spheres retained on display in the time-indicating housing apertures are indicative of attained time of day. As the next-attained time of day is reached in increments of one minute (60 seconds), another sphere is added to the displayed array of spheres to provide a next higher-order time of day reading. The time-controlled continuous movements of the drive cams provide mechanical means for continuously loading and positioning the next-order alignments of spheres into framed window displays. Next-higher order attained time of day readings are provided by increased predetermined numbers of displayed spheres. At preselected time intervals, the drop bars which hold the displayed spheres are responsive to the movement of the drop cam to pivot rearwardly for depositing the displayed spheres back into their associated holder chutes. The holder chutes comprise means for holding the spheres in stored position until the time-related movements of the associated drive cams again engage preselected ones of the associated spheres for being moved into visual framed display within the time-indicating housing apertures. It is the intended function of the clock device to provide the visual framed display of a single additional sphere with each one minute next attained irregardless of the concurrent and continuous intervals of redeposit of previously displayed spheres into their associated holder chutes.
Clock devices comprise very popular consumer items and conventionally employ a variety of intricate and complex mechanical linkages and moving parts. Traditionally, clock faces present so-called movement hands or arms which represent attained time of day by means of their ever-changing angular positions as viewed against a background of standard indicia of numerals. Clock devices utilize movements and sound to mark the passage of or attainment of time as well as to intrigue the viewer. Time of day references are indicated by a wide variety of symbols and/or numerals, including alphanumerical and digital numerals. Very often, clock devices become popular consumer items just as well through the aesthetic configuration and visual aspects thereof as through the functional accuracy and dependability thereof. The present invention discloses a clock device which is intended to be at once intriguing and entertaining to the viewer as well as functional and accurate to maintain time of day. The present inventor is also the inventor of another entertaining and novel clock device which uses displayed arrays of spheres to mark attained time of day, and the referenced clock device is the subject of the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,198, to which reference may be had by the reader for a more detailed treatment thereof.
The present invention provides means for measuring time of day through the embodiment of a novel clock apparatus which indicates time of day without the utilization of angular referenced movement hands or a lighted digital display and without an extraordinarily large number of intricate and detailed mechanical parts, but indicates time of day by means of an unusual manner of visually displaying window-framed spheres, the displayed numbers of spheres being time-referenced to count attained time of day. The preferred embodiments hereof maintain time of day with a timing accuracy to the nearest minute (60 seconds) and with a contrasting simplicity for reading time of day wherein the movements of the spheres into and from the window displays have the effect of immediately capturing the continued interest of the viewer. The present clock device provides a closed endless loop motion system wherein time of day can be continuously maintained without any scheduled resetting or re-arrangement of spheres so long as electric power is maintained to an electric clock motor providing timing source means, and without need of any re-activation of any mechanical clock movement. Calibration is a simple function accomplished by mechanically decoupling the clock drive shaft from the clock motor shaft and mechanically rotating the drive shaft until the desired time of day is displayed prior to recoupling the clock motor shaft.
In a preferred embodiment of the novel clock device, there is provided a clock apparatus employing continuous movements of spheroid means to provide attained time of day comprising in combination housing means including a plurality of time-indicating apertures defined in a selected outer wall portion thereof, a plurality of spherical units, at least a corresponding number of spherical holder chutes mounted within the housing means and normally containing the spherical units at rest therein, the number of said holder chutes generally corresponding in number to the number of time-indicating housing apertures, horizontally aligned rotatable drive shaft means supported within the housing means, means for coupling the drive shaft means to clock motor drive means, a plurality of driver cam members adjacently mountable on the shaft means and arranged in predetermined time-referenced rotational orientations with respect to each other, the cam members including protrusion members, respectively, engageable with associated contained spherical units at rest on the holder chutes, respectively, and being moved into engagement therewith in response to time-related rotational movement of the drive shaft means, selected ones of the spherical units being positioned for visual framed display within the associated time-indicating aperture of the housing means, for providing an attained time of day reading, selected other ones of the spherical units being moveable into position for visual framed display within associated ones of the time-indicating apertures for providing next-order attained time of day readings, pivotable spherical holder means positioned adjacent to the time-indicating apertures and effective to hold a preselected number of spherical units for visual framed display within the associated time-indicating apertures, the spherical holder means having moveable cam follower means responsive to the rotation of the drive shaft means to alternately provide first and second positions for the holder means, said first position being effective to display the associated spherical units within the time-indicating apertures and said second position thereof being effective to redeposit the displayed spherical units into the associated holder chutes, respectively, the spherical units at rest on the holder means comprising means for biasing the holder means to be responsive to the movements of the cam follower means for selectively biasing the holder means to pivot to the second position of the holder means whereby said displayed spherical units are unloaded into the associated holder chutes.
The preferred embodiments for the clock device described above can be readily configured to provide a continuous horizontal drive shaft, a parallel adjacent and continuous horizontal array of ball-holder chutes, and a parallel adjacent and continuous horizontal array of time-indicating apertures in the outer housing wall. Alternatively, the same preferred embodiment for the clock device can be readily configured to provide predetermined horizontal groupings of chute arrays to be vertically stacked with respect to each other and each such grouping thereof to be associated with a grouping of parallel adjacent time-indicating apertures and a parallel section of drive shaft. The housing means for the preferred embodiment can be any selected configuration or design so long as a selected outer wall thereof is provided with the desired number of time-indicating apertures, either arranged in horizontal alignment or in vertically stacked predetermined groups of horizontally aligned apertures. The design of the housing means is desired to be entertaining and interesting to the viewer; hence, a primary preferred housing means for the horizontally aligned embodiment of clock apparatus comprises a train assembly of coupled railway cars consisting of an engine car, a coal car and a linked pair of passenger cars, all coupled and mounted stationary on a base substrate member. Any number of suitable housing means can be provided to present visual arrays of time-indicating apertures preferably arranged in vertically stacked groups of horizontally aligned apertures associated with corresponding vertically stacked groups of clock apparatus. Preferably, the vertically stacked groups of apertures will provide three planar levels associated with time in hours, in five-minute increments, and in one-minute increments up to each five-minute increment. It is at once apparent to the skilled practitioner in the art field that a variety of other equally suitable housing embodiments and configurations could be utilized wherein the clock apparatus is configured in either the singular horizontal alignment or the vertically stacked predetermined groups of horizontally aligned clock structure, and the invention hereof is not to be limited solely to the disclosed preferred embodiment of housing.
The horizontally aligned embodiment of the preferred clock apparatus is comprised of separably coupled clock apparatus groupings presenting predetermined ball-display patterns relating to the display of time in hours and minutes. For example, one selected clock apparatus grouping is functional to present a ball-display pattern in one-minute increments of 1-4 minutes, another selected clock apparatus grouping is functional to present a ball-display pattern of 5-55 minutes represented in eleven 5-minute increments, and still another selected apparatus grouping presents a ball-display pattern of 1-12 hours represented in twelve 1-hour increments. The three clock apparatus groups have the capacity to present ever-changing ball-display patterns representative of or indicative of the attained time of day for twelve continuous hours, and thereafter the cycle of changeable ball-display patterns is repeated for each and every subsequently occurring twelve hour periods. The clock apparatus is not indicative of A.M. or P.M. time periods. It is convenient to locate the clock apparatus grouping having the 1-4 minute indicating ball-display pattern within the coal car of the train assembly in association with 4 time-indicating apertures in a selected side wall thereof, to locate the clock apparatus grouping having the 5-55 minute indicating ball-display pattern within the immediately rearwardly coupled passenger car of the train assembly in association with the eleven time-indicating apertures in a correspondingly selected side wall thereof, and to locate the clock apparatus grouping having the 1-12 hour indicating ball-display pattern within the next-most and final rearwardly coupled passenger car of the train assembly in association with the twelve time-indicating apertures in a correspondingly selected side wall thereof.